The tangy fruit has been collected by Aboriginal people across northern Australia for thousands of years, and in recent times has been sought after for use in health foods and high-end cosmetics thanks to its high vitamin C content.

The national carrier Qantas has even added powdered gubinge to its in-flight menu in the form of a fruit bite.

Generating jobs and income for community

Bidyadanga elder James Yanawana led the push to start a commercial plantation, believing it would lead to job opportunities and generate much-needed income for his community.

Preparing to load more than 400 kilograms of the fruit onto trucks destined for processing, he said there was more work to do, but the punt was starting to pay off.

"It's exciting getting here after 10 years, you know. It's good to see we've got something out of it," he said.

For Mr Yanawana, gubinge is a fruit he remembers from his childhood, when it was eaten to promote good health.

"We would pick them walking through the bush from the wild trees. We'd chew them while we were walking along," he said.

Fruit from the plantation's 350 trees is hand-harvested by community residents from mid-December to February and snap frozen within 24 hours.

It is then trucked to Victoria for pulping or to be turned into a powder for use in foods, skin care or pharmaceuticals, which are exported to markets as far away as the United States.

Gubinge from the Bidyadanga plantation is picked, sorted then frozen for export to Melbourne.

White-crowned sparrows exposed to small doses of a common neonicotinoid insecticide used in agriculture rapidly shed significant amounts of fat and spent days recovering before rejoining their migration, a study has found.